whale-for-sale

WHALE FOR SALE THE GLOBAL TRADE IN DEAD WHALESIndiaIn August 2013, a fish seller was photographed selling Ganges river dolphin meat at a roadside marketat Lezai-Kalakhowa, in Assam’s Dibrugarh district, India. The Ganges river dolphin, a fresh water speciesfound in the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers of India and neighbouring countries, had been killedby villagers. Despite being highly endangered and legally protected, hunting by local people persists. 1IndonesiaThe village of Lamalera lies on the south coast of Lembata, in Nusa Tenggara Timur, easternIndonesia. It is the only place in the world where migrating sperm whales are still hunted by hand ona regular basis. The hunts take place outside the IWC, as Indonesia is not a signatory. Early accountsof islanders harpooning whales for their oil date back to at least the early 17 th century and suggestthat ambergris was collected and sold. 1In recent years, villagers have killed as many as 40 sperm whales a year in a hunt steeped in ritual andtradition. Small wooden boats called tena are used to approach the whales (although sometimes thetena boats are towed out using boats with outboard motors). When the tena boats are close enough,a villager leaps from the bow and thrusts a bamboo harpoon into the whale, using the full weight ofhis body. The hunt is cruel and bloody: the stricken whale is stabbed repeatedly and can die a slowand painful death due to blood loss.There is much poverty on Lembata and Lamalera villagers still depend upon whale meat for nutritionalas well as cultural reasons. Local custom stipulates that whale meat should be equally distributedamong the villagers and so the hunt is primarily conducted for subsistence purposes. However, themeat is also bartered with mountain villagers for food items such as maize, yams, bananas and sugarcane 1 and sold at local markets 2 . Given the value of whale meat to this impoverished community, it isalso quite possible that other valuable byproducts such teeth, spermaceti and ambergris are also soldor bartered. Further investigation is needed to ascertain the scale of trade with neighbouring regions.Lamalerans also kill pilot whales, although this time the hunt is less ‘traditional’ and motorboatsare used to chase these whales. In another example of the increasing modernization andcommercialization of the hunt in the 21 st century, the community has created a form of ‘whalingtourism’, charging fees to allow tourists and photographers to witness, film or even join the hunt.There are concerns that income deriving from such tourism is likely to increase the whalers’motivation to hunt further whales. 3ItalyIn October 2013, covert filming by an Italian television crew revealed that dolphin meatwas being served to customers at restaurants near Rome.Thinly sliced flakes of musciame, dried dolphin fillet, were served as part of a salad. An investigationhas been launched by Italian prosecutors after analysis of samples, both from the restaurant and from{ 20 }